St. Francis Academy Graduates Urged To Be Renaissance Women

"All that you need are great expectations," Marcia Coyle, bureau chief in Washington, D.C., for The Morning Call, told the 15 graduates yesterday at St. Francis Academy.

"If you nourish great expectations, you will rise above the low periods in your lives and soar even higher in good times," said Coyle, a 1969 graduate of St. Francis.

Coyle reminded the graduates that later in life they can change directions, start new careers, "without long- or short-term damage."

"You can be a Renaissance woman in this century," she said.

Jennie Giasi, salutatorian, urged her classmates to look within themselves for "encouragement and enthusiasm."

"They are the qualities that make us want to be better for self- fulfillment and for the good of our neighbor," she said.

"We are responsible for what our names will mean," said Milissa Bolcar, valedictorian. "We have to decide who we want to be."

Bolcar said the public and personal image we have is a product of both the self and the community. She urged her classmates to "choose a specific plan whereby we will make additions or changes to reach our goals."

Students receiving scholarships were Giasi (Degenstein Scholarship - Susquehanna University, Snyder County, $2,500 for four years and the WAEB/ Union Bank Scholarship, $250) and Bolcar, Lehigh Valley Motor Club Safety Patrol Scholarship, $1,000 for four years.